Wireless Connection Unavaliable

[network noob]

Hi everyone, I'm trying to connect to the internet wirelessly via the SBC Home portal. I am using windows XP and I have the Home portal with one ethernet port. I also have a desktop computer that has successfully connected wirelessly, but my laptop won't. It worked before, but the laptop crashed and I had to restore it. Now I can't get wireless internet to work. The bottom toolbar has 2 icons for internet connections - one for local area connection (which I am using to type this via an ethernet cable) and a wireless connection. The wireless connection is unavailable according to the icon and it has a red X on it. I've tried right clicking on it and selected view avaliable wireless networks. It brings up a window with a blank field and 3 choices, 1 is grayed out. The choices are cancel, advanced, and the grayed out connect. I've gone to advanced and entered the WEP key and stuff, still a no go. I've also gone to open network connections (right clicking the X-ed icon) and selected properties for the wireless connection. I've tried going to the Internet Protocol thingy, and the IP addresses and dns servers are automatically obtained. I've tried just about everything, but still can't get it to work. If anyone could help me it would be much appreciated. Thanks!

[glc]

Are you sure the wireless adapter's radio is on? When you restored the laptop, did you make sure the drivers and management software for the wireless adapter were reinstalled? Even though you may choose Windows to manage the wireless connections, the supporting software still needs to be installed - and you can choose in its interface to use Windows to manage it. You didn't indicate the model notebook you have, but if it uses an Intel wireless adapter, Pro Set needs to be running.

[network noob]

Well, I'm using an e-machines notebook that was made about... maybe 3 years ago. My wireless network adapter is one of those WLAN 802.11g things (don't know what brand, but I'm assuming 2Wire since it worked before). I checked to make sure my drivers were up to date and also my firmware, and it checked out ok. Everything already seemed to be up to date. I went to http://homeportal/setup, went through setup, then it redirected me to http://gateway.2wire.net. There was a link on the right that said Upgrade Your System, but under it the text reads your system software is current. From checking all that, I don't know where to go. What is the adapter radio and what is Pro Set?

Edit: By the way, I've gone through the SBC Installer cd and it tested my internet connection. It should have installed the drivers if I was missing any, and it also said that I could surf the internet when I was fininshed. Keep in mind that the ethernet cord was still in at this time; setup cannot be finished with it out. Oh and I did find the radio thing. There was an unchecked box reading enable radio. I checked it and hit apply, but it says I have to use the hardware radio control switch to enable it. Where is it?

[network noob]

Sorry for double posting, but I found it! Thanks glc! I started messing around in the control panel to look for my wireless adapter hardware settings, but couldn't find them. So I switched to classic view, which I always thought was easier. Found it first try! As for the radio, I found the button. It was F2 but I had to hold down the blue Fn button because the wireless button was blue too. Thanks for your help and I'll remember this in the future in case my computer(s) crash again.